Ralph Bennett Oral History
Object number2021.001.0022
Date04/21/2021
ClassificationsOral Histories
Oral history interview subject
Ralph Bennett
Oral history interviewer
Stephen Fagin
ObjectOral history
Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumBorn digital (.wav file)
DimensionsDuration: 63 Minutes
DescriptionAudio oral history interview with Ralph Bennett. Bennett was president of the Young Democrats at the University of Montana in 1963. As a civil rights worker with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), he took part in the Summer Community Organization and Political Education (SCOPE) project and spent the summer of 1965 promoting voter registration and participating in multiple demonstrations in Mobile, Alabama. He was later a civil rights and peace movement activist in Chicago.
Interview conducted by telephone on April 21, 2021 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is one hour and three minutes long.
Curatorial CommentaryThe Summer Community Organizing and Political Education (SCOPE) project of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was an ambitious undertaking in the summer of 1965 in preparation of passage of the Voting Rights Act in August 1965. Hundreds of predominantly white college students were recruited to travel to six southern states to coordinate with community groups, promote voter registration, and document voter suppression. An extensive digitized collection of primary source materials, including orientation brochures, reading lists and press materials may be found here: Civil Rights Movement -- SCLC/SCOPE Project (crmvet.org). The Museum has been honored to record oral histories with several activists who took part in the 1965 SCOPE project. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator
